Recommend me a new TV

CRAIGO5000

I'm after a new TV for a room I've nearly finished doing up. I'm mounting it on the chinmey breast and have supplied mains power and trunk lined the inner of the breast to conceal cable runs.

I would like your opinions on what £800 max could bag me. A quick look around shows I can get this:http://www.cheap-lcd-tv.co.uk/50_Samsung_PS50C490_HD_Ready_Digital_Freeview_HD_Plasma_3D_TV_825_d Samsung 50inch 3D Plasma. Reviews seem good but I've not had time to read them all - I usually spend a good two days on the net painstakingly researching every aspect of purchases like this! :wallbash:

You can see the diagonal markings for 50inches of viewing pleasure:


Narrow it down for me guys! Should I buy another Plasma or look at LED or LCD? Is 3D worth getting now? To be honest, I thought for a 50inch 3D TV, I'd be looking at 2 grand, not £500!?

Cheers,
Craig

alan_sherman

If the TV will be viewed in a bright room go LED lit LCD. If to be watched in the dark go plasma.
For plasma go Panasonic, for LED go Samsung.

I found resolution on standard broadcast a bit rubbish with bigger TVs at a distance of 2-3 metres - bear in mind that bigger is not necessarily a better experience if you are sat close! I went 40" for a 3 to 4 metre viewing distance.
Go to John Lewis and put standard definition channels on - then stand back at the distance you will normally be watching the TV and choose the size that provides the best viewing quality.

Also mount an ethernet cable in the wall with the other cables to keep things neat for the network capabilities. Iplayer is native to most TVs these days and although I run my TV on wireless OK, a wired connection is preferable to your router (I have no spare wired ports on my router). Sony have good network TV capabilities but I found the screens too dark for our bright room.

Your screen will be mounted very high for a seated watching position, can you drop it a little? Look for a TV with a low bottom border and possibly a tiltable mount to avoid reflections from room lights.


Big TVs are fun, but complicated choosing the right one! (I went for a Samsung 6000 series, 40" LED recently)

rick_chasey

That's out of my price range and size range, but I can suggest that getting any TV that isn't 1080i is a waste of time...

sketchley

This maybe useful

http://myhometheater.homestead.com/view ... lator.html

Clever Pun

Yeah I'm looking at Samsung LED tv's right now... 40' seems about right for where it's going

cheers for the heads up Alan

johnboytheconfused

Be careful when you are looking at display models in the likes of Comet &c, as they are always displayed in an area of the showroom in which the lighting is blue and dimmed. This shows off the goods to the best advantage much like a butcher displaying fresh meat under reddish lighting, and the salesman will claim, if you comment, that it replicates the lighting of the average home. Fair enough, but you need to imagine the actual conditions it will be used in at your house, such as daylight or household lighting which is usually much warmer than the showroom cool blue.

Also, don't make the usual error of placing it too high on the wall. You will get a stiff neck viewing it, and it will be much more visible through the window to the local burglars. I assume that the space beneath is where the fire is to go, and that might lead to an issue with heat distortion between your viewing position and the screen. On the burglary issue, don't leave the packaging outside for the rubbish truck either; you are just advertising to all and sundry that you bought a nice new tele.

Having new stuff is cool.

CRAIGO5000

They do the 50inch 1080p version for £599 too. It also has more in terms of connectivity.

The height isn't final yet. I just measured out 50inch to wow myself

At the moment, this is this winner...

http://www.cheap-lcd-tv.co.uk/50_Samsung_PS50C680_Full_HD_1080p_Digital_Freeview_HD_Plasma_3D_TV_779_d

sketchley

Also top tip. Once you've found what you want go to John Lewis. All TVs come with free 5 year guarenty, free delivery, plus they will price match and customer service is excellent.

More here

http://www.johnlewis.com/Electricals/Te ... egory.aspx

CiB

The Panasonic tx-p42g20b at 42" has a fantastic picture once it's run in & set up properly; it has HD tuners for Freeview and Freesat and if you plug a USB HDD into it becomes its own PVR. They're down to about £600 nowadays, maybe less. The 50" version will be a bit more than the 42" one that the model above represents.

DonDaddyD

I'm in the market - need to be before Novemeber/Christmas....

OK plasma I'm told (well of the pioneer variety, which they don't make anymore) actually gives the best picture.

For your average house hold LCD over plasma. LED over LCD. Why? Size, energy usuage and maybe slight difference in the picture quality because companies are using their best parts/panels for LED TV's whereas LCD is mostly being used for the entry level TV's.

Wouldn't bother with 3D TV, yet (if I ever will) personally the technology is still too new and I never buy the first example of new technology. Also unless you pay extra for the Sky 3D channels and/or get a 3D DVD/Blu ray player when are you going to use it. Just think HD TV is still not the standard yet. (Freeview HD must - Sky HD if you have Sky).

Personally I buy from Richer Sounds - http://www.richersounds.com

Unless your living room is properly specatularly massive 50inches may be big. Make sure you check out the optimum viewing distance and TV height before mounting it on a wall. A lot of people mount TVs on walls not taking into account that you need to look upto watch them and doing so extensively hurts the neck.

gtvlusso

We have a small'ish 32" LG plasma TV. The nice thing about it is that it has bluetooth built in. I can send pics from my phone direct to the TV and display them. Quite nifty!

Other than that, I have no idea. Don't watch TV much!

Bassjunkieuk

I'll second what DDD said, I wouldn't bother with 3D yet. The technology is still far too young and the setup can get expensive as additional pairs of glasses aren't cheap. I've also heard reports of people getting rather sore eyes when watching the home 3D systems - they may look and feel OK for the 5 minutes you watch them at the shop but it's a whole other kettle of fish watching a 2-hour epic on them.

I picked up a 40" Samsung LCD from Sainsbury for just under £400 - very much a cost saving exercise and I'm very happy with it. Full 1080p and it's currently hooked upto a PC so acts like a H-U-G-E monitor running at 1980*1080 :-) The DVB tuner in it is OK, as others have commented the SD looks crap close up but from back on the bed 2-3m back it's acceptable. My favourite feature is the USB playback which means I can put movies, music and photo's on a USB hard disk (which themselves are ridiculously cheap now, 1TB can be brought for <£50) and watch/listen to/view them without having the PC on :-D

garryc

A few pointers.

Most TVs are set up wrong, this is particulaly true of TV showrooms. They run these in 'Demo mode' where they tend to turn up the contrast, sharpness and saturation to make the screens 'pop' out at you.

When you get the screen home you'll need to do a fair amount of tweaking to switch all these things either off or down to a much more realistic level. Also switch off any of those wierd effects like image interpolation which is meant to help fast moving objects, but only serve to degrade the image further.

Personally I would invest a neck brace as well, I couldn't watch a TV that is closer to the ceiling than the floor.

Kieran_Burns

Oh for flips sake. My post... didn't :evil:

Summary TX42V20B - £720 best picture you can get for the money bar none.

Wrath Rob

Anything Panasonic. My TV might be a few years old now but its been brilliant. Great picture, nice features, what more do you need!

lostboysaint

For that budget Panasonic - they win most of the awards for budget screens, particularly plasma.

42" or bigger go plasma, smaller go LCD. That still seems to be the concensus amongst the viewing cogniscenti.

Having been through the whole exercise with all the research I ended up with...................................a 42" Panasonic plasma. And it's been perfect.

sketchley

lostboysaint wrote:

For that budget Panasonic - they win most of the awards for budget screens, particularly plasma.

42" or bigger go plasma, smaller go LCD. That still seems to be the concensus amongst the viewing cogniscenti.

Having been through the whole exercise with all the research I ended up with...................................a 42" Panasonic plasma. And it's been perfect.

There's a reason for that. Plasma is generally considered to be a better picture than LCD for various reason I won't go in to except to say if you compare the same plasma with LCD side by side from same manufacturer (like I did) Plasma is just look more real. However the smallest plasma you can buy is Panasonic's 37 inch (if still available) however it's not possible on anything smaller than 42 to run at 1080p as pixel size cannot get small enough. It can with LCD. As most people want 1080p these days the choice is Plasma if 42 or higher, or LCD if smaller.

I do not know how the above compares with LED, but as it is still back lit I would expect Plasma to beat LED as well.

Kieran_Burns

Just to add - are you upgrading from an existing flat screen TV? I only ask as the speakers on all these TVs are basically crap so you'll need external speakers to get any benefit.

Given this, you could find yourself running HDMI around amd will want to take this into account with the cables and speaker placement.

CiB

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Just to add - are you upgrading from an existing flat screen TV? I only ask as the speakers on all these TVs are basically crap so you'll need external speakers to get any benefit.

Given this, you could find yourself running HDMI around amd will want to take this into account with the cables and speaker placement.

Quite right too. The audio out of most flat panel TVs leaves a bit to be desired. As for running HDMI leads about the place, try this bit of kit: http://www.reghardware.com/2011/04/04/review_gadget_eminent_itrio_em7100/

sketchley

Why would you want to run HDMI all over the place? From Back of TV to Amp Rack / PS3 / Blueray / DVD is all you need and that looks catered for assuming the fireplace is the amp rack. Speaker cables though are missing in the picture. I would buy (should that be did buy) some nice cable (no point doing it with cheap stuff) then burried it in the walls. There are no cables on show anywhere in my front room! Might I also suggest a hole from said amp rack out the side of the fireplace. That way could also put a cabinet next to it and run cables in to the fireplace amp rack from it. Useful if you expand kit or want to hide kit out of the way like an old video player.

Kieran_Burns

Sketchley wrote:

Why would you want to run HDMI all over the place? From Back of TV to Amp Rack / PS3 / Blueray / DVD is all you need and that looks catered for assuming the fireplace is the amp rack. Speaker cables though are missing in the picture. I would buy (should that be did buy) some nice cable (no point doing it with cheap stuff) then burried it in the walls. There are no cables on show anywhere in my front room! Might I also suggest a hole from said amp rack out the side of the fireplace. That way could also put a cabinet next to it and run cables in to the fireplace amp rack from it. Useful if you expand kit or want to hide kit out of the way like an old video player.

It was a slightly flippant comment (maybe more careless than flippant ) but the message was clear and one you've repeated.

I was basically wondering if running the HDMI lead from the TV to the amp had been accounted for, or whether there was an amp at all...

Merely opening up the debate slightly (for purely nosey purposes you understand)

sketchley

Oh it that case if you want to be nosey I have one of these .



but in black.

And these



but in Silver

CRAIGO5000

Yeah I've catered for the forseable wire situation:






I still need to break through the chimney breast wall to supply that boxed area where the trunking lives with my Virgin HD wiring, phone line and aerial connection for any future freeview requirements. (if I got rid of Virgin HD for example)

Speaker cables will be located behind skirting boards and break out at each corner where the speaker will be located. With this in mind, there shouldn't be any wires on show at all. I've even created a trap door style shelf that will house power cables and cable runs from amp to TV etc that may be too long.

I hope I've not forgotten anything. The plasterer comes on Wednesday and I don't want to ruin any of his work with changes!

sketchley

You may want to go for Freesat or Sky HD in the future I ran the cables for those as well just in case I move away from Virgin as I don't want Sky man running cables around the skirting boards. I also ran CAT 5 back to my study so and didn't have to use wireless for the PS3 to stream conent from my NAS box. Very good decision too.

optimisticbiker

my 2p worth...

My 46" Sony is great if you want natural colour. If you want hyper-colour go for Samsung LED. They are just wrong IMHO. As has been said, no TV is properly set up when you get it. I borrowed a bit of kit from my daughters partner (he's a professional TV production manager) and set it up right and its spot on colour and plenty strong enough in a very bright room.

Look at Sony's site for positioning info - most have it too high. The centre of the TV should be eye height when sitting in your favourite chair. For my 46" that puts the bottom about 70cm from the floor - it looks low but you'll find its more comfortable to watch for extended periods.

Happy viewing...

CRAIGO5000

Okay cheers for the advice guys.

I've now postponed the plasterer in order to give me some time to replace Virgin cables that were pinched during the install. I don't want to risk using them and then have them break down behind skirting in a few years time.

I have two wires coming into the house to supply me with Virgin+HD. One wire is coax (google tells me it's RG6 coax) and I don't know what the other is.....?

It has 4 very thin colour coded wires inside a white sheath. It look like standard telephone wire as this does connect to a Virgin wall mounted telephone socket but I don't want to end up buying the wrong grade or type etc.

Does anyone know for sure what it is?

sketchley

It's a phone cable. Not needed for v+ box.

CRAIGO5000

Okay cool. So any off the shelf phone cable will do?

sketchley

Yes. But it should be easy enough to find the duel cable stuff too.

Initialised

I'd say 3D is only worth it if you're going to plug the TV into a gaming PC with enough graphics grunt to handle it and have a suitable arrangement to actually be able to use it that way. So far it's the only platform that has grown up with 3D as part of it's feature set. It's come and gone but the current implementation works really well but cuts performance in half.

With a £2k budget you should be looking at a 50" panel and surround setup.

Don't run source->TV->amp as the TV will usually chop it down to stereo. If your amp has HDMI (get one that does). Go Source->amp-> screen, otherwise use optical.

I'm going to be re modelling my living room in a similar way soon. Already have the TV, amp, gaming rig so no fun shopping but I like how you're progress looks and want to see how the build turns out.